Introduction
The Drop Dead 2 RDA seems like a throwback, a regular dual-coil RDA without any special tricks or features. Does this mean that it’s merely an outdated product, or breath of fresh air in a world full of disposable vapes?
Product overview
The Drop Dead 2 RDA is a 24mm, dual-coil RDA, with a 6.2mm juice well and postless deck.
What do you get?
- Drop Dead 2 RDA
- 2×0.37ohm Ni*80 clapton coils
- 2×shoelace cotton
- extra drip-tip
- coil measuring tool
- spares
First impressions
The Drop Dead 2 RDA looks very conventional until you take off the top-cap and realize that the dimensions of this RDA are clever, it’s like a tiny stubby RDA but with extra juice-well.
However, this isn’t a ‘drop’ style deck, despite the name. Yes, you do drop the coils in (as with every other postless deck, but No, you don’t have the ability to snip them after dropping them in. As a performance choice, pure postless is better, it just doesn’t suit the name.
Overall, the build quality is good; everything fits well and the airflow adjustment is smooth.
Build
Using the supplied coil measuring tool, snip the coil leads to the arrow marking 5mm (but…) and secure/align them, it got the best results with my coils pushed in slightly.
However, depending on your vaping preferences and the coil size/material you might want to snip to 4mm. This does make it slightly more difficult to secure the leads, but for my build it was worth it.
Wicking is standard RDA wicking, use a little less cotton if you’re squonking and it’s all very simple.
How does it perform?
- Build One – supplied coils 0.18ohm for the pair* - with the initial build, I went for the recommended 5mm for the coil legs. With the airflow fully open at 75-85w, there was excellent vapor production and good (but not amazing) flavor. When I closed the top row of airflow and took it down to 60-70w, the flavor increased and vapor production decreased. All-in-all this was a decent vape.
After this build, I looked at the coil height and noticed that the bottom row of airflow holes was positioned too low to hit the coil, which lead to build two.
- Build Two – exactly the same, but with 4mm coil legs* - the coil height with 4mm legs is perfect; the bottom row skirts the bottom of the coil, the center row hits the coil smack in the center and the top row skirts the top of the coil. This adjustment didn’t affect the amount of vapor production, but it bumped up the flavor a notch or two from good to very good, especially with airflow fully open.
Airflow
The airflow is comprised of three rows of six holes, these can be closed down one hole at a time horizontally, or three holes at a time vertically. While the top-cap locks in place, there is enough movement to make sure the airflow is centered, even when you close down the airflow vertically.
Even fully open, the airflow has a slight restriction to it, I don’t think I’d want more airflow, but having that option would have been nice.
As expected with a honeycomb setup, the airflow is smooth and whooshy.
Conclusion
The Drop Dead 2 RDA seems to be aimed at a certain type of vaper who remembers the era of the Dead Rabbit, Drop, Recurve and Wasp with fondness, but it takes the performance and build quality up to 2024 levels.
Disclaimer
The Drop Dead 2 RDA was supplied for the purposes of this review by Hellvape.
